


Hammer to the Nail

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-31
Updated: 2008-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an off-panel side story to "The Nail", we see how Black Canary became the Outsider of that series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hammer to the Nail

"I want to hire you."

The two women regarded one another with a tension that could only be called visible for its thickness. Adeline Kane-Wilson had no use for costumes, on either side of the fence, and Dinah Lance knew all too well who this woman linked back to.

There was a strong chance, if Dinah was successful, that her former husband would very soon wind up on the Outsiders mission call.

"What do you need me for, hero?" Addie asked, putting the contempt that so few of them could not handle into her voice.

"To teach me not to be one," Dinah said levelly. "To see the mistakes the capes make, and to know when it's going to go bad."

Addie reappraised her petitioner; that was not what she expected in the least.

"It's going to cost you."

"I have the money," Dinah said firmly.

The well-born woman looked the vigilante over from head to toe, and just let her eyes show that money might not be all there was to this deal.

`~`~`~`~`

The first time Dinah found herself pinned, face down, arm up in a leverage hold, she was surprised...and angry.

The fact Addie found herself pinned just as firmly less than three minutes later made the older woman all but purr to herself. A fighter as good as the Canary was that could fight through anger with rationality was a rare thing.

She just carefully did not think of the last student she had seen do it.

`~`~`~`~`

Addie hated fear. She found herself hating Dinah and whomever had put the fear in her eyes, strictly because Addie held a knife.

More precisely, that Addie holding a knife had thrown off Dinah's combat patterns enough to let Addie press it to her throat.

"Fear makes you weak. You'll be dead in no time if you can't see the blade as a tool, not a menace," Addie growled, disappointed in her student showing in her crisp tones.

Dinah felt the sharp metal against her throat, and decided it held less power than knowing this woman found her weak.

`~`~`~`~`

Dinah hated the sharply acrid taste of blood in her mouth, always had. She glared at the fighter across from her, and deployed her team with precise, brutal, efficiency.

She did not know how to thank Addie enough for sharing the files on Deathstroke, as she proved the Outsiders could do what the Titans had failed to.

`~`~`~`~`

Addie was there at the funeral, waiting. Dinah let Katana and Black Lightning go by, saying her own last thoughts to the casket. GeoForce had been such a promising member, but when Deathstroke goaded him over Terra...Dinah closed her eyes at losing him. Shade and Metamorpho hovered near by, but turned to join the other surviving members.

"You'll lose more," Addie said bluntly.

Dinah looked up into her face. "How do you go on, knowing what he..."

Addie cut her off with a cold, dangerous look. "You almost got him back. You did put him down once. You've seen what he's become."

"I won't stop trying, but how can I risk them?"

This time it was the smile that was cold. "Because they are soldiers, like you've become."

"I was just a woman once...."

Addie looked her over again. "If you let go of that, you're no better than he's become."

Dinah looked away, not sure she liked that thought. She didn't protest when Addie stepped to her side, put an arm around her, and guided her to a waiting limousine.

`~`~`~`~`

Dinah came as soon as she heard. The boy they called Jericho, the boy that graced countless pictures in Addie's personal office and quarters at Searchers, Inc. headquarters, was dead.

"Both my sons," Addie whispered when Dinah settled, a hand on her shoulder, just behind her in the chair by the desk. "He killed them both."

Dinah's heart flared with a passionate hatred she had not known since the ordeal with Jimmy Olsen. She looked at the woman who had been her teacher, who had given her support through her transformation from League to Outsider, and knew one day she would find the way to kill Deathstroke forever.

Until then, she could only offer what comfort Addie would take. The hand on the shoulder brushed along Addie's cheek, and the older woman stiffened.

"You should go, Dinah," Addie said, somewhat a command, yet something closer to a test. Dinah shifted around in front of her, kneeling in front of the chair.

"You've lost your son. What kind of friend would I be to leave you alone with that?"

"So we are friends?" Addie probed.

Dinah considered, the varied triumphs and losses since that day when Addie had agreed to teach her, to shape her. "Maybe not friends, but certainly more than just teacher and student."

Addie reached out, running a thumb along the jaw of her second-best student. The way the younger woman closed her eyes was strangely gratifying. "More can be a two-edged sword laying between us, Dinah Lance."

"I've survived your sharpest edges so far," Dinah told her. "Let me stay and keep you from losing the woman you are," she offered, her words strong despite the half-whisper they came in.

`~`~`~`~`

It was another funeral. Dinah supposed she had always known it would come to this, that old live by the sword, die by the sword routine.

She had not expected the woman to leave her Searchers, Inc. She had not expected half the things that had happened in the years since she asked Adeline Kane-Wilson to teach her.

As she folded her arms around herself, she knew she would never stop missing the way Addie had done it, that she would never forget the lessons mingled with the pleasures.

And as long as she breathed, there was no place on Earth Deathstroke would run without being hounded by her, Searchers Inc., and the Outsiders.


End file.
